The Hunting Ground

            Sexual assault on college campuses has been a recognized problem for several years now. However, even though it is thought to be a very well-known societal issue, it appears that little is being done in order to combat it. Statistically, about 1 in 5 women are raped on college campuses around the country (Washington Post, Kaiser Family Foundation, 2015). This has been a published statistic for several years and it appears that it will not be changing for the foreseeable future. To date, approximately 45% of universities reported 0 reports of sexual assault on their campus (The Hunting Ground). Unsurprisingly, this can be attributed to schools in essence being businesses that want to protect their branding, because no parents would be comfortable sending their child to a campus known for sexual assault. Title IX procedures have been in effect for several decades and are meant to hold institutions accountable for incidents like sexual assaults, but few have faced any charges. This is can be attributed to reports being covered up by university officials and easily dismissed as victim blaming and with the thought that those kinds of things do not happen at their institution. The producers of The Hunting Ground are rightly helping bring to light the problem that sexual assault is on college campuses and how students are fighting the schools that are wrongfully dismissing their claims.

            The Hunting Ground quickly became one of the most controversial documentaries after it achieved such prominent success in uncovering this issue, specifically some of the backlash it received had to do with critics saying that the film is promoting the idea of college women as “victims”. I can concede that towards the very beginning of the documentary it did feel as if the women being interviewed were portrayed as victims and it is understandable that several people may have not had the desire or belief in the issue to sit through the whole documentary. However, towards the end it begins to show those same women as empowering players in the fight against the cover up of sexual assault on college campuses. It followed the story of how two survivors connected and filed Title IX complaints against their school, constructed a network to help other women come forward, and taught other survivors how they can do the same and hold their universities accountable. I believe this does not sound like a documentary that is meant to show women as victims of a systematic denial of a social issue, rather it seems to show their transformation from survivors to activists.